THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Fast Retailing Co., operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, will work with microfinance organization Grameen Bank to sell affordable clothing in Bangladesh, executives of the two entities said Tuesday.

Fast Retailing will set up a joint venture in October with a group company of the Bangladeshi fund led by economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Locals will be employed to manufacture and market clothing priced at around $1 (89 yen) apiece.

"We have sold our products targeting 800 million people in industrialized countries," Fast Retailing President Tadashi Yanai told a news conference in Tokyo. "But the 4 billion people in the developing world will create a giant market in the future."

The venture, Grameen Uniqlo, will be 99 percent owned by Fast Retailing's wholly owned subsidiary. Grameen's group company will hold the other 1 percent.

Fast Retailing plans to employ 250 people in the first year of business and create 1,500 new jobs within three years, executives said.

Fast Retailing has been producing clothing in Bangladesh, one of Asia's poorest countries with a population of about 158 million, since 2008.

Grameen Bank was founded by Yunus in 1983 to make small loans to poor rural households without collateral.

Fast Retailing is the first large Japanese company to establish ties with the community development bank, executives said.

The company is considering having Grameen loan recipients in rural areas serve as local sales personnel to improve their economic standing and make it easier to pay off their debts.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201007130404.html

Japan's clothing retail chain to help set up textile unit in Bangladesh

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus (L) and Tadashi Yanai, president of Fast Retailing, attend a press conference in Tokyo yesterday. Japan's casual clothing brand Uniqlo and Yunus said they would create a textiles company in Bangladesh to help poor women gain financial independence. Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo, plans to invest some $100,000 to set up Grameen Uniqlo Ltd. Photo: AFP

Refayet Ullah Mirdha

Social business finds a new route now -- this time entering the garments sector.

Grameen Bank Group is partnering with Fast Retailing Company Ltd that owns Japan's casual-clothing chain Uniqlo. Under a joint venture, a textile unit will be set up in Bangladesh in September to help the underprivileged women.

The Japanese company and Grameen Bank Group have agreed in Tokyo to launch the venture through a Fast Retailing subsidiary.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is promoting the social business model, said the textiles company will help poor women and solve social problems, including those related to poverty, sanitation and education, through planning, production and sale of clothing.

Fast Retailing plans to invest some $100,000 to set up the business, temporarily dubbed as Grameen Uniqlo Ltd, for producing and retailing the products in the country, a statement said.

Grameen Bank will take a 1 percent stake in the venture, according to a Reuters report.

"On the retail front, we will use the Grameen Bank Group's borrower network of eight million people to help those living in poverty to develop job skills and provide them with opportunities to sell clothes door-to-door," said Fast Retailing.

"In the first year, we plan to generate work for 250 people and to increase this figure to 1,500 within three years."

"Grameen ladies will become their own business owners by selling the clothing products in visits to neighbours' houses," news agency AFP quoted Tadashi Yanai, chairman and president of Fast Retailing, as saying.

Yunus is backed by corporations such as food giant Danone, global water group Veolia, sportswear company Adidas and software company SAP.

Fast Retailing will be the first Asian corporation to start a social business with Grameen Bank Group, Yunus said.

"Uniqlo is a global company, a big company, and a company that is now creating a social business in Bangladesh," he said at a Tokyo press conference, adding that the world needs a new economic "architecture" to fight poverty.

Uniqlo opened its liaison office in Dhaka in September last year although it had previously outsourced RMG products through an agent.

It has a network of over 760 stores in Japan. The company opened stores outside Japan in September 2001 starting in London. It expanded international network across six countries -- the UK, China, Hong Kong, the US, South Korea, France.

Meanwhile, garment exports to the new destination of Japan maintained a high growth rate in the July-April period of fiscal 2009-10 riding on the back of high demand for Bangladeshi apparel items there.

According to data from state-owned Export Promotion Bureau, Bangladesh exported knitwear items worth $60.02 million in the first 10 months of the immediate past fiscal year, which was $18.15 million in the same period of fiscal 2008-09.

In the July-April period of fiscal 2009-10, knitwear exports to Japan grew by 230.65 percent. Bangladesh logged $89.87 million in earnings from woven garment exports, registering a robust 121.46 percent growth over the same period a year ago.

Data showed that RMG exports to Japan were worth $74.38 million in fiscal 2008-09, compared to $28.04 million in fiscal 2007-08.

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Mashiur Rahaman

Japanese fashion group 'Fast Retailing' is going to set up a joint venture in Bangladesh to create a textiles company, investing some US$0.1 million in October.

The operator of the Uniqlo casual-clothing chain decided to form the venture with Grameen Healthcare Trust of the Grameen Bank Group, aiming to help poor women to gain financial independence, official told the FE.

Fast Retailing, which already has manufacturing bases in the country, said the business will produce clothes using materials procured within Bangladesh and sell them at prices affordable for the poor. 

Officials said the microfinance specialist Grameen Bank will take a 1.0 per cent stake in the venture. The new company will source materials and make garments in Bangladesh - including women's underwear, school uniforms and blankets.

Fast Retailing said the objective of the joint venture was to "help solve social problems, including poverty, sanitation and education issues in Bangladesh through the planning, production and sale of clothing".

The joint venture will be called 'Grameen Uniqlo' and be located in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, he added.

'Grameen ladies will become their own business owners by selling the clothing products in visits to neighbours' houses,' said Tadashi Yanai, chairman and president of Fast Retailing in a news release.

A statement by the company said: "Bangladesh is expected to experience economic growth, with much of it driven by the textile industry, but it's people still face an abundance of social problems, including poverty, sanitation and education.

"Utilising our unique SPA (specialty store retailer of private label apparel) know-how, we will plan, produce and sell clothing at a price point that is affordable to people living below the poverty line while still maintaining product quality.

"This joint venture will also create jobs, thereby improving the lives of the Bangladeshi people," the statement said adding that the company plans to generate work for 250 people in the first year, increasing this figure to 1,500 within three years.

On the retail front, Fast Retailing also plans to use Grameen's borrower network of 8.0 million people to create jobs selling clothes door-to-door in the country.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=106041&date=2010-07-14

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Glasgow signed a historic agreement of mutual cooperation on the 4th of July. The agreement whose legal terms were defined in a memorandum of understanding details a first of a kind historic collaboration between the University of Glasgow and the Yunus Centre, with a view to developing academic and educational cooperation and promoting the understanding of Social Business. Both parties will encourage cross cultivation of ideas and collaboration between academic and administrative staff on commonly defined projects, lectures and academic symposia and promote the exchange of skills and information through staff exchange and training programmes. The agreement also made provision for the possibility of creation of intellectual property such a business plans, brands and concrete exercise of such, sharing equally the financial benefits of such activity. Currently valid for 5 years, it is anticipated that this collaboration will be long term.

"Antes del Nobel no me oían. Ahora me basta con susurrar"

ARIADNA TRILLAS 03/07/2010

Es complicado colarse en la agenda de un premio Nobel de la Paz de paso por España, de modo que un almuerzo imposible -tiene una cita con la reina Sofía, el príncipe Felipe y un montón de empresarios y profesores del IESE- se convierte en un desayuno posible, entre estudiantes, en la cafetería de la escuela de negocios. Ahora bien, Muhammad Yunus, el economista de Bangladesh conocido ya como el banquero de los pobres, jamás toma café. ¿Acaso un té? Tampoco. "Ni coca-colas, ni pepsis. Nada de todo eso es necesario, ¿a que no es necesario?", pregunta, a sus 70 años, con una calma que no casa con el revuelo armado a su alrededor. "Desde que llegué, me ofrecen comida y bebida todo el tiempo", sonríe el impulsor de los microcréditos para personas con escasos recursos.